Meeting Moonwalker Charles Duke

Last month Robert and I traveled to NYC to meet legendary astronaut Charles Duke. As the lunar module pilot for Apollo 16 in 1972, he became the tenth and youngest person to walk on the Moon.

A retired US Air Force brigadier general, Duke visited the 108 year-old Explorers Club to be interviewed by Jim Clash, as part of the Club’s new Exploring Legendsseries which is open to the public.

Clash, a long-time adventure journalist, has flown to the edge of space in a MiG fighter jet, driven at 253 mph in the Bugatti Veyron, and climbed the Matterhorn and virgin peaks in Greenland and Antarctica.

The Explorers Club President Alan Nichols stated that the purpose of this interview series was to select the world’s great explorers and have an intimate chat – or as intimate as one can have in front of a live audience. “No visual props or Power Points – just one-on-one discourse between Clash and his guest. That way interviewees are forced to be more spontaneous than the ‘canned’ speeches they are used to giving.”

It was noted that, Duke, a member of the Explorers Club, was famous, though, even before he flew: as a mission control specialist in Houston when Apollo 11 ran long on its landing – barely reaching the lunar surface before using all of its fuel – Duke, now 77, deadpanned in a southern drawl, “Tranquility, we copy you on the ground. You got a bunch of guys about to turn blue. We’re breathing again. Thanks a lot!”

Charles Duke gazing at his younger self on the moon

The experience proved to be well worth the two and half hour train ride to Manhattan. Duke spoke of his many adventures on the moon including a “Lunar Olympics” in which he tried to perform his own version of a high jump. To him, the moon had appeared like a desert with brilliant colors of gray.

His descriptions came to life as we were later treated to amazing video footage of his space flight and landing as well as his walks on the moon.

Duke said he hadn’t been able to see the earth while standing on the moon because our planet had been situated above his head, and his helmet had rendered it impossible to look up.

He also mentioned that he had attended Neil Armstrong’s funeral and spoke fondly of this famous astronaut’s humility. Duke explained that Armstrong had become the first man to step on the moon, in part, because of his left-sided location on the spacecraft. Whomever was located on the right side of the craft was evidently blocked by the open door from exiting.

Duke said that he couldn’t comment about the legend that Buzz Aldrin had tried to convince Armstrong to change places so that Aldrin instead could be the first.

Duke felt that travel to the moon had been a good investment, and he recommended a base there that could aid as a communication way station for exploration to Mars.